Rickey Paulding won't be the only former Tiger with a chance to play NBA basketball near his home.

A day after the Detroit Pistons selected Paulding in the second round of the 2004 NBA Draft, Travon Bryant signed a free-agent contract to play with the Los Angeles Lakers. Bryant, a native of Long Beach, Calif., will play with the Lakers' summer league team and compete for a spot on the team's regular-season roster.

Despite all the negative connotations associated with the NCAA’s investigation, the Missouri men’s basketball coaching staff can say it benefited from its effects.

The Tigers announced Thursday the hiring of former Liberty coach Jeff Meyer to take the position Lane Odom held. Meyer, along with newly hired associate head coach Melvin Watkins, combine for 24 years of head coaching experience. Meyer’s hiring completes the program’s coaching search.

The Mid-Missouri Mavericks had the biggest crowd in their three-game series against the Evansville Otters on Thursday, and they gave the 2,260 in attendance something to cheer about in their last game of the series against Evansville.

The Mavericks beat the Otters 7-6 at Taylor Stadium in a Frontier League game.

Jack Timmons began playing bridge when he was 20 and working as a radar mechanic for the Air Force in Germany during the Korean War. It all started when a group of three friends was looking for a fourth person to play.

“I was pretty good with cards of any kind and liked the game,” Timmons said. “Some weeks we played as much as 70 to 80 hours a week, which was virtually all our spare time.”

Since his graduation and the end of a hectic basketball season, Travon Bryant has led a somewhat slow, simple life.

With his basketball plans undecided, there hasn’t been much for Bryant to do other than prepare for that future as best he can. On his own, Bryant has worked on his game and body for about five hours a day, then rested so he could do it again the next day.

Most people start slowing after retirement. Ed Burnham has done anything but.

Burnham, 84, has run 138 marathons, and all of them have come after he turned 70. Burnham, of Kansas City, will run in the 5- and 10-kilometer Road Races at the Senior Show-Me State Games this weekend.

Uncertainty is perhaps the only thing certain about the NBA Draft. Whether that first-round pick becomes the next Michael Jordan or the next Sam Bowie remains to be seen, but those are the chances teams must take.

As usual, uncertainty marks the 2004 NBA Draft, which is at 6 tonight, but for some idea, the Missourian’s mock draft will provide thoughts on who might go where.

Leroux moves to MU after coaching the men’s and women’s teams at Austin Peay University. In seven years as coach of the men’s team, he led it to an Ohio Valley Conference championship, as well as the school’s first NCAA Regional appearance, in 2001.